Here is how many of us make our daily to-do lists: In the AM, fueled by coffee and morning delusion, we jot down all the tasks we hope to accomplish in the next eight (or, let’s be real, 11 or 12) hours. But these lists, while well-intentioned, are often written haphazardly. After crossing off a third of the…

When you realize you need to get something done, you probably think to yourself, “I have to do that soon.” But that type of thinking disrupts your motivation in two ways: by messing with your sense of time and robbing you of urgency.

Taking care of your most important task at the beginning of your work day is one of the best pieces of productivity advice floating around. But it only helps if you actually follow through with your work the rest of the day.

When you get emails that require action, you want to make sure to add it to your task list as soon as you can, and the best way to do this is to connect that list to your email. This way, you can add to your to-do list without leaving your inbox.

Your to-do list is supposed to help keep you organized, but you still have to do a lot of the grunt work to manage your schedule. Todoist wants to make it easier by suggesting the best times to get your tasks done based on your habits.

A day may be 24 hours long, but you have to sleep. That leaves you with less time you can actually use each day—about 100 10-minute blocks. This simple exercise can help you determine if you’re spending them wisely.

Sometimes checking email first thing in the morning helps you get it over with and focus on more important tasks. However, there’s an equally compelling case against checking email first thing. If you work better ignoring your inbox in the morning, you’ll want to make sure you steer clear on Friday mornings in…

It’s vacation season, so everyone is ditching work for some summer fun. If your motivation has plummeted because it feels like you’re the only one stuck in the office—and maybe you are—use the time to tackle all the little things that have been piling up.

When it comes to productivity apps, simplicity of design and familiarity are usually king, because nobody wants to learn a whole new system every time they check out a new to-do app. But sometimes, apps break the pre-written productivity rules and make something completely different.

Everything at work has gone nuts. Your boss is barking orders, your coworkers are panicked, and you’re pretty sure the front desk is on fire. When everything around you is falling apart, focus on the small tasks you can achieve.

Sometimes it’s hard to stay focused, and you may not even realize why you can’t seem to keep your mind on the task at hand. It might be because you have unfinished business with a previous task. To remedy this, take some simple advice from a Zen master: leave no trace.

When you’re working remotely, it’s easy to get distracted by all the nagging tasks you have to do around the house. If you want to keep those chores from pulling your focus, it can help to indulge in them in short bursts so you put your mind at ease.

As much as we enjoy digital tools, there’s something to be said for the simplicity of good, old-fashioned pen and paper. Instead of picking one or the other for your note-taking and day-to-day tasks, get the best of both worlds with The Medium Method.